Howard the Duck

At this point, it’s an impossible task to unload all of the baggage this movie carries and view it on its own terms, but here goes: while it’s the lesser of the two 80s movies about a traveller from another dimensional plane where Thompson is subjected to considerable sexual peril, its eccentric sensibilities (and a game cast who even make the absurd duck costume almost credible) give it an energy clearly borrowed from better films from the era. Huyck has clearly studied at the feet of Spielberg and Zemeckis, and while he can’t quite build the tension required to make the apoplectic finale fire as it should, the whole enterprise is a surprising amount of fun, especially whenever an uncharacteristically unhinged Robbins is on-screen.